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A Boeing 777 which took off from Toronto for Tokyo was forced to make an emergency landing back at Pearson Airport on Monday after engine problems and reports of falling debris.

The Air Canada aircraft left Toronto around 2:10 p.m., carrying 16 crew members and 318 passengers.

It was forced to return to Pearson International Airport just before 4 p.m. after an engine shut down.

"There was an engine noise and the captain announced they had to turn around," said Andrew Burnstein, a television executive who was on board Monday's flight.

"Everyone was calm; everyone didn't react crazily. It was two hours to go nowhere, but I'd rather the inconvenience than a disaster."

When passengers landed they heard it was believed that pieces of debris -- resembling chunks of asphalt -- had fallen from the aircraft and damaged four cars in Mississauga, Ont., where the airport is located.

"Now we're hearing reports that there were some debris. So that means something drastic happened to that engine," Burnstein said at Pearson's Terminal 1.

"It was a bit scary to hear that. But that's tempered with the reaction of the crew and the technology of the plane to land safely with no indication anything was wrong."

Burnstein said Air Canada taxied passengers to end of the runway after the plane landed safely. Emergency crews, according to the captain, examined the brakes, which had to cool down.

"The captain told us these are amazing aircraft; they're meant to fly on one engine, but procedure dictates you have to turn back," he said. "We had to dump fuel to reach a minimum level to land safely."

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick stressed the jets are design to fly on a single engine and "our pilots train for that."

The aircraft was trying to put the delayed passengers on a 7 p.m. flight to Narita Airport, Fitzpatrick said. But depending on the curfew rules at the Tokyo airport, it could mean travellers would have to wait until Tuesday morning for a flight out.

Fitzpatrick added he couldn't confirm the reports that debris fell from the plane, but "that's something we'll be looking at as part of our investigation."

At the Petro Canada gas station in Mississauga, Jonathan Bergen examined his car's smashed rear window.

The 26-year-old Pepsi salesman was first alerted to the damage by a woman who came into the gas bar.

"Maybe it was a Coke plane," he joked. "This could've been a lot different day if someone had been in the car."

He said he knew the damage was a result of the plane because other cars had similar blows and he found clumps of the asphalt-like material scattered throughout the parking lot.